colorado, What I grew in '91 is the same that TOm Hauch got out of the SSE Yearbook and others were growing and listing it as well. I said above that I compared my 91 with Tom Hauch's current stock and they were identical. I'd said above that after Tom sent seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum that it was Steve who got the background info. There are NO seeds that came forward directly from about 1865 in a direct line as far as I know. And Tom can't even remember the name of the SSE person he got the seeds from and clearly others got it from that person as well. I didn't say that as clearly as I should have. RB was listed by an SSE member in an SSE Yearbook. How that SSE member got the seeds is not known. Apparently Steve contacted that SSE lister and found that the variety was knnown to have been grown by the Amish in Chester Co PA. One might assume that the original SSE lister got it from the Amish. You know, I think a lot of these questions would be answered if those of you who still have questions, were to read the article at Victory Seeds on the history of brandywines by Craig LeHoullier. He did the family ones and I provided the info for the ones that were bred or resulted from cross pollinations. Fruit size alone can never ID a variety b'c as I think most of ou know, weather can alter fruit sizes, and so can amendments used. So without doing controlled studies I would not use fruit size as THE determining factor in IDing any variety, Carolyn

Hi again! Well, all's well that ends well! The nursery that was starting Brandy Boy seeds for me called me that they had my plants ready. All I could think that these were going to be awfully small plants. When I got there, I was in for a big surprise! Since they knew I was worried that they were being started too late, they scouted around and found me huge Brandy Boy plants (at least 1 1/2 feet tall without the pot) and they were so happy to show me their find! I ordered 4 plants (3 for me and one for my daughter), so I felt obligated to buy them, even though there were much more expensive than I had planned on ($10.00 each--YIKES!). I really don't think they made much money on them, as they purchased them elsewhere and they are beautiful plants. They usually grow all of their own plants. These are really larger than I like to buy but I planted one yesterday and it's doing great, no signs of wilting or other shock from transplanting. The Brandywine I was having trouble with is doing really well and there are no new brown spots. I really believe "something" got on the plant that caused the problem because it doesn't look sick at all. I am waiting for the plant to get a little bigger and then I will pluck off the branches with the affected leaves. I also purchased another Brandywine (found one with a potato leaf) because of the trouble I was having with the first one. So now I have TWO healthy looking Brandywine plants and THREE Brandy Boys. This has got to be the most expensive tomato garden I have ever had! And I had to find two more places to plant, as I normally only have three tomato plants total. But I am VERY happy to have my plants and, barring unforeseen circumstances, I should have a great yield of tomatoes this season! Thanks again everyone for your help! I think the tomato garden (and my CHICKENS) are calling me! A good Memorial Day weekend to all! Genie

Yes, Amish Paste is usually droopy, but I've never considered it to be a paste variety b'c for me and some others it's way too juicy. There's another variety called Lillian's Red Kansas Paste and it's not a paste one either. Mr. Stripey, the large bicolor, has not worked out well for many folks . They complain of lack of vigor and low to no fruit set. Naturally there are others who like it. IMO I could list lots of gold/red bicolors I'd grow before I'd grow Mr Stripey. ( smile) YOu see it all over the place for a very good reason. When Wayne Hilton owned Totally Tomatoes he was a client of Seeds by Design in CA, which is a wholesale place and they also produce seed by subcontract. Wayne found this bicolor and gave it to them and they didn't know that there already was a variety called Tigerella, aka Mr. Stripey, so they named this one MR. Stripey, this confusing legions of tomato growers. SBD sends out a list of their varieties each year to many commercial places and Mr Stripey is on that list and that's why you see it at most of the big box stores, etc. Carolyn

Linda, The good thing is that Linda Sapp went out and got a real RB. A few years ago even Mike Dunton at Victory Seeds was selling a wrong PL version and several of us told him about that. And Tomatofest was also selling seeds on sale one year and Gary too had a wrong PL one. There are plenty of places that,in addition to TGS one can get true RB and it was Tom Hauch at Heirloom Seeds in PA who first got it out of the SSE YEarbook and I think I linked to his site above. Glenn Drowns at Sandhill Preservation has the correct one and I'm sure Tania does as well. I don't think Adam Gleckler lists it b'c when he got back into the seed buiness it was all about getting varieties that would not be the standard ones and I didn't check REmy's site either, actually there are many other sites I don't know about either and didn't check any of them. What happened is that Seeds by Design in CA, a wholesale place, sent out a PL RB to lots of places and then sent out a few more wrong RB;s and before that had sent out wrong varieties, I can't remember the name of the one important variety now, again, to several places. Carolyn, who also knows that Victory Seeds has had the correct RB for many years and assumes that's also true of Tomatofest.